It was the manufacturer Daihatsu itself who made the announcement. It admitted to falsifying crash test results for six of its models between April and May. An independent commission was then set up to investigate in order to “fully clarify the nature of the irregularities and identify their root cause”. According to the report made public on Wednesday and presented to the Japanese Ministry of Transportation, the investigation has identified 174 irregularities among 25 categories of evidence, the oldest of which dates back to 1989.
These irregularities affect a total of 64 vehicle models, including models that are no longer in production, including those made to order by Toyota, Mazda and Subaru. Daihatsu offered its “deepest apologies” to its customers for having “betrayed their trust” and decided to “temporarily suspend deliveries of all models developed by Daihatsu and currently in production in Japan and abroad.”
The failures of the Daihatsu
In its report, the group of independent experts blames Daihatsu’s failures on factors such as “extreme pressure due to an overly strict and rigid development schedule” and a lack of management experience.
The personnel responsible for the safety tests “were under great pressure to pass them” because “the number of test vehicles available was limited to reduce costs,” the president of the investigation commission, Makoto Kaiami, detailed on Wednesday. during a press conference.
“The prevailing mentality was that no failure would be forgiven,” he added.
According to public broadcaster NHK, the Japanese Ministry of Transport will carry out an inspection at Daihatsu facilities on Thursday to try to confirm the facts recorded in the report.
“Extreme gravity”
Toyota itself expressed in a separate statement its “sincere apologies for the inconvenience and concern this situation has caused,” and also announced that it would suspend delivery of the affected models. The checks are intended to verify “that vehicles meet different standards so that customers can drive their vehicle with complete peace of mind” and are “an essential prerequisite for operating as an automaker,” Toyota said.
“The extreme severity” of “Daihatsu’s negligence in the certification process has shaken the very foundation of the company as an automobile manufacturer,” he added.
Daihatsu admitted last April to having falsified crash test results for four of its models, corresponding to a total of 88,000 vehicles manufactured in Thailand and Malaysia in 2022 and 2023. Then, in May, it announced the cessation of production in Japan of two models of hybrid vehicles due to similar “irregularities”, including that of the Toyota Raize SUV, manufactured on behalf of its parent company.
Daihatsu produced more than 1.7 million vehicles worldwide in the 2022/23 fiscal year that ended at the end of last March, about half of which were produced in Japan. This specialist in very popular minivehicles in Japan, the so-called “kei cars”, a market of which it controls around 30%, makes most of its sales in the archipelago and in Southeast Asia.
Founded in 1907 to manufacture internal combustion engines, the company based in Osaka (western Japan) launched its first three-wheeled vehicle in 1931. In 1967 it came under the control of Toyota.
Source: BFM TV
